Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a monitoring unit for the outside in a motor vehicle's direction of travel, which unit includes at least one camera system having an image-recording sensor.
The present invention further relates to an assistance system for motor vehicles, in particular for traffic-sign and/or traffic-lane registering, having at least one monitoring unit registering the outside in the motor vehicle's direction of travel, with said monitoring unit including at least one camera system having an image-recording sensor.
Background Information
Intelligent Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) will play an increasingly important role in up-to-date motor vehicles of the future. Said vehicles will contain, for example, monitoring units such as camera systems having, for instance, digital CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) or CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) image sensors as aids that register the outside, for example in the motor vehicle's direction of travel.
Pure black/white (B/W)—that is to say monochrome—image recording is for most tasks more favorable than color image recording in association with image-processing systems of said type employed in the automobile sector for registering travel environments. However, applications do exist where color information obtained from, for example, the three RGB primary colors red (R), green (G), and blue (B), and/or other colors such as, for instance, yellow (Y) etc. can be important for attaining a higher confidence level for the output vector generated by an image-processing means.
An instance thereof is traffic-sign recognition, with its being possible to recognize by way of the, where applicable, individual color information (R and/or G and/or B, and/or other colors such as, for instance, Y etc.) whether the sign concerned is a prohibition sign or a sign giving orders, or one that purely provides information.
Another function is recognizing colored lane markings associated with, for example, roadworks. Color information is helpful here, too, and necessary to be able, for example, to distinguish between the normal white markings that are no longer valid and the additional yellow lane markings.
Conversely, purely monochrome (B/W) image recording will suffice for the purpose of recognizing objects such as obstacles, other vehicles, and cyclists or other persons because color information (R, G, B, Y etc.) will as a rule not provide better recognition quality.